THE GOD MARKET: HOW GLOBALIZATION IS MAKING INDIA MORE HINDUBYMEERA NANDARANDOM HOUSE | 320 PAGES | RS 395

In 19th century Europe, industrialisation, and the mass migrations from farms and villages to the towns and cities, went hand in hand with the death of God: organised religion began to decline, and the Church and state moved further and further apart. The experience of South Asia has been more or less the reverse of this. All over the subcontinent faith has been growing and religion becoming stronger as the region has reinvented itself in different ways over the last twenty years. This is at least as much true of India as it is of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

During the early 20th century, educated, urban Hindu reformers moved away from ritualised expressions of faith in favour of a more philosophical Hinduism, while Nehru and Ambedkar constitutionally formed India as a model secular state. This was to be a state where, in Nehru’s celebrated words, dams would be the new temples. But over the last two decades, just as India has freed itself from the shackles of Nehruvian socialism, in many ways, it has also gone a long way to try and shake off Nehruvian secularism.

This new religiosity has recently been the subject of a remarkable study by Meera Nanda, an academician at JNU, who has shown how globalisation is making India more religious, and religion more political. “Globalisation has been good for the gods,” she writes in The God Market. “As India is liberalising and globalising its economy, the country is experiencing a rising tide of popular Hinduism, which is leaving no social segment and no public institution untouched. There is a surge in popular religiosity among the burgeoning and largely Hindu middle-classes, as is evident from boom in pilgrimage and the invention of new, more ostentatious rituals. This religiosity is being cultivated by the emerging state-temple-corporate complex that is replacing the more secular public institutions of the Nehruvian era...a new Hindu religiosity is getting more deeply embedded in everyday life, both in the private and public spheres.”

Today, local cults and variants are sidelined in favour of centralised, hyper-masculine hero deities like Lord Rama.

India, Nanda reveals, now has 2.5 million places of worship, but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75,000 hospitals. Religious pilgrimages now account for over 50 per cent of all package tours, while the bigger pilgrimage sites now vie with the Taj Mahal for the most visited sites: the Balaji Temple in Tirupati had 23 million visitors last year, while 17.25 million trekked to the mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi. In a 2007 survey jointly conducted by the Hindustan Times and CNN-IBN in 2007, 30 per cent of Indians said they had become more religious in the last five years. Such is the appetite for rituals in this newly religious middle-class. There has recently been a severe shortfall of English and Sanskrit speaking priests with the qualifications to perform Vedic and Agamic rituals. When it comes to rituals in the new India, demand has outstripped supply.

Nanda writes engagingly about what she calls ‘Karma Capitalism’ and the TV godmen, some of whom have huge following: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living empire apparently claims 20 million members; much of its land, she reveals, is donated by the state of Karnataka.

Meanwhile, as in Pakistan, religion and politics are becoming ever more closely entangled. Last summer’s elections may have highlighted the inability of the Sangh Parivar to mobilise votes using communal religious grievances. But as the anti-Christian riots in Orissa earlier in the year showed, it doesn’t take much to wake the sleeping dragon of communal conflict, and Ayodhya still remains an emotive and divisive issue, as we saw in Parliament last month.

Generally, however, Nanda shows that the infiltration of religion into Indian politics is less violent and much more subtle. It is also something for which Congress is as much responsible as the bjp. Nanda presents interesting evidence about the dramatic increase in state funding for yagnas, yoga camps and temple tourism, as well as the dramatic increase of state land given for temples, ashrams and training schools for temple priests. In Rajasthan, the government annually spends Rs 260 million on temple renovations and training for Hindu priests. Mass pujas and public yagnas have now become an important part of political campaigning for all parties, not just the bjp. For 20 years, the Sangh parivar has been making political capital out of “the appeasement of the minorities” by a “pseudo-secular state”. But Nanda makes a strong case to show the astonishing degree to which the religious institutions of the majority community are now the recipients of vast sums of state patronage and funding, and how what she calls “the state-temple-corporate complex” works quietly behind the scenes for a Hindu revival.

Perhaps surprisingly, India’s growing band of techies and software professionals seem particularly open both to religiosity in general, and right wing Hindutva nationalism in particular, so much so that many have joined a special wing of the rss, which now organises regular meetings called IT-milans, where right wing techies can “meet like-minded people and get a sense of participating in something bigger than just punching keyboards all day”.

While Nanda probably gives undue space—an entire chapter—to the liberalisation of the economy since 1991, material that is widely available elsewhere, she might have said a little more about the homogenising tendencies of modern Hinduism, and the way local and regional cults and variants are falling out of favour as faith becomes more centralised. Small devtas and devi cults giving way instead to the national hyper-masculine hero deities, especially Lord Krishna and Lord Rama, a process scholars call the ‘Rama-fication’ of Hinduism.

For this tendency, the best source remains Romila Thapar’s essay Syndicated Hinduism. Here, Thapar shows how, since the mid-19th century, reformers such as Vivekananda have systemised Hinduism into a relatively centralised nationalist ideology that now increasingly resembles the very different structures of the Semitic religions its more extreme adherents tend to abhor. “The model,” writes Thapar, “is in fact that of Islam and Christianity...worship is increasingly congregational and the introduction of sermons on the definition of a good Hindu and Hindu belief and behaviour are becoming common and register a distinct change from earlier practice.” According to Thapar, this homogenising process is accelerating: “The emergence of a powerful middle-class,” she believes, has created a desire for a “uniform, monolithic Hinduism, created to serve its new requirements”. This new Hinduism masquerades as the revival of something ancient, but it is really “a new creation, created to support the claims of [Hindu] majoritarianism.”

Ironically, there are strong parallels in the way this new Hinduism is standardising faith to what is happening in South Asian Islam. There too, the local is tending to give way to the national as the cults of local Sufi saints—the warp and woof of popular Islam in India for centuries—loses ground to a more standardised, middle-class and textual form of Islam, imported from the Gulf and propagated by the the Wahabis, Deobandis and Tablighis in their madrasas.

Today, as a result, the great Sufi shrines of the region find themselves in a position much like that of the great sculptured cathedrals and saints’ tombs of northern Europe five hundred years ago, on the eve of the Reformation. As in 16th century Europe, the reformers and puritans are on the rise, distrustful of music, images, festivals and the devotional superstitions of saints’ shrines. As in Europe, they look to the text alone for authority, and recruit the bulk of their supporters from the newly literate urban middle-class, who looked down on what they see as the corrupt superstitions of the illiterate peasantry.

There is a similar if more gradual process at work in Hindu India: researching my Nine Lives, I found tantriks in West Bengal who lived in fear of Marxist ‘anti-superstition committees’, which beat up tantrik babas they accuse of bring perverts, drug addicts, alcoholics, even cannibals. Everywhere, the deeply embedded syncretic, pluralistic folk traditions that continue to defy the artificial boundaries of modern political identities are finding it difficult to compete with the homogenising mainstream.

Nanda is overtly hostile to many expressions of religiosity and her study is likely to appal as many devout and nationlist readers as it will delight their agnostic and liberal neighbours. But even those who dislike its tone must recognise this as a stimulating, controversial and pathbreaking study which contains a large amount of data unavailable elsewhere, and which opens a debate on an important aspect of modern Indian life.

(William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India is published by Bloomsbury.)

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The upsurge in Hinduism, as Meera Nanda observes in her book The God Market and which William Dalrymple endorses in its review (The Glitter in the Godliness, Jan 18), is a fact. The same is true of Islamic fundamentalism. Secularism and other western ideologies have failed to gain a foothold in this part of the world. Perhaps Western thinkers haven’t had the good fortune of getting access to the ultimate truth, which is handed over to the people of this region by God himself! Nitaidas Saha, Dhaka Who is this Meera Nanda, whose book Dalrymple has reviewed? A JNU product, a fossilised Indian Marxist and a secularist hypocrite. Who else but Dalrymple would compliment her, and who else but VM would publish the review? Vijay Agarwal, Northampton, UK Excellent review by Dalrymple. The ‘new’ Hinduism is actually the latest religion in the world, much of it shaped by skin-deep TV serials. It has less to do with the ancient, heterogenous belief system in India that the Persians and Arabs referred to as Hindu. It has more to do with the desire of Hindu nationalists to have a frame of reference similar to that of Christians and Muslims.

Yasser, Dubai

The homogenisation of Hinduism is similar to the homogenisation of Indian popular culture, specifically our movies. At one time, our movies were recognisably Indian; now, Bollywood films are like Hollywood films and their songs like rock anthems.

Living abroad, we have been increasingly gravitating towards the depth of wisdom in our ancient texts. We also regret not having learnt Sanskrit. As opposed to the radical Hindutva being pushed by certain quarters, Hinduism is all-inclusive and accepts that there are many paths to realisation.

Dilip Mahanty, Sydney

Since Swami Vivekananda’s time, India and Indians have been trying to find a national identity founded in the traditions of Hinduism. However, it must be noted that it is the efforts of non-homogenising Hindus that have brought inclusive Hinduism the appeal it has gained in the West and in India itself.

Atul Chandra, on e-mail

The emergence of a religion, or of an existing religion in a new form, is a sign of civilisation. After all, we haven’t had any atheist civilisation.

Balaji Viswanathan, Chennai

Myth 1: India is secular because the majority are Hindus. The fact is it’s secular because an anti-Hindu leader like Dr Ambedkar was the chairman of the Constituent Assembly and a westernised Jawaharlal Nehru was our first prime minister.

Myth 2: Hinduism is a tolerant religion. Just look at the troubles people get into for marrying within the same so-called gotra!

Myth 3: Haj subsidy is a major concession to Muslims. Consider also the subsidies given for flights to places like Mizoram and other northeastern states and for Hindu festivals like the Kumbh Mela.

Ganapathi, Chennai

Nehru’s secularism was possible in India only because of its Hindu majority; he didn’t dare touch any other religious structure. The British tried to undermine us through an education system that made us think badly of Hinduism. Nehru, therefore, assumed everything about Hinduism was bad. The country has rejected that thought—and rightly so.

Vibhaas, Doha, Qatar

Hinduism is amorphous and gives you a freedom of choice like no other religion does. Concepts like blasphemy and apostasy are alien to Hinduism. Spirituality is the strength of India and will remain our defining quality.

Every religion, ideology, belief system etc will be constantly under attack. The pest will survive on the clichéd repetition of the same old ideas. Boo hoo. That is the not way it should be. Learn to cringe with it rather than complain about it. Mere complaints would mean an implicit admission that it cannot survive on clichés - because I say so.

>> Hinduism could take roots in India ...

For the large part, yes, but it is constantly under attack by violent/militant secular groups who want a secular state religion etc.

>> What is wrong if seculars are expressing themselves through the internet and much visible now?

Who said that it is right to express through internet etc. But there will be people who oppose the manner of expression, the violence of cozy state-sponsored militant brats, secular jihadi elements who want a state religion etc.

Every religion, ideology, belief system etc will be constantly under attack. The best will survive on the merit of ideas. That is the way it should be. Learn to deal with it rather than complain about it. Mere complaints would mean an implicit admission that it cannot survive on merit.

>> Secularism could take roots in India ...

For the large part, yes, but it is constantly under attack by violent/militant hindu groups who want a hindu state religion etc.

>> What is wrong if Hindus are expressing themselves through the internet and much visible now?

Who said that it is wrong to express through internet etc. But there will be people who oppose the manner of expression, the violence of private militant groups, hindu jihadi elements who want a state religion etc.

India is a united country because of Hindus and their Hinduism. According to Chinese recent comments in the press, India is held together because of that "decadant" Hindu religion!!

Hinduism is under attack in the modern times by scoundrels and literally dishonest persons ,the writers who try to cast doubts,throw mud on great legends like Sita and Rama and Krishna. They write books with full of lies, vague theories based on illusionary "facts".

The recent example is that of Wendy Doniger and magazine Outlook trying to put words in to her mouth as if her perverted writings were not enough. The episodes which she ascribed to Valmiki Ramayana in her books even do not exist in Valmilki Ramayana at all.

If Hindus becoming aware of their religion ,more because of globalisation and perticularly WWW , it is very natural and consequential. A cursory glance at youtube.com sections of devotional songs , show you how terrible the attacks are on Hindu Gods and Goddesss. For example one idiot puts Vatsayana Kamasutra sculptures in a video and speakes volumes about the Hindu Gods mating on the walls of the temples !!

Another idoit quotes and misquotes diologues of Sita in Ramayana totally out of context ,dresses them in a different context so as to throw mud on this great character and who was that lier , who was he ? He is that Sundeep Dougal of this Outlook!!

If these were the attacks and Hindus begin to educate themselves in their own legends,puranas and itihas ,it shall be welcomed. After all ,we shall encourage the truth against willful miscompaign and mudslinging hatred shown for wad of notes destributed by Christian missionaries.

AP State govt. misused TTD (tirumala tirupathi devasthanam) funds,borrowed money, and Endowment ministry is full of corrupt beurocrats. TTD provides employment to 25000 people from its own funds builds roads,runs buses and colleges. During Y.Samuel Rajashekar Reddy govt. , an attempt was made to build church on Tirumala hills. Christians was appointed as TTD Padmavati guest house chariman. In Orissa and Karnataka evengelists have a free run in converting people therby brining in social disturbances. North-east had been under the grip missionary predators and is out any Hindu chaunism. Temple lands have been under govt. occupation at least in AP. In Tamil nadu it is not any better either.

Secularism could take roots in India because of majority Hindus, for a comparison anyone can look at Pakistan which was created on the same day. India is a country which is more than half-of Europe , with more than 200 spoken and written languages, with all religions of the world, with more than 200 different casts is still thriving as one country and aspiring to be a super power because of Hindu majority population. Look at Pakistan which could not survive even for 25 years as one country, watch the scenario in Afghanistan,Iraq,Iran,Malaysia and Indonesia.

What is wrong if Hindus are expressing themselves through the internet and much visible now? Why anyone should feel threatened if there is an immense increase in piligrimmage? trains and buses are running in profits,hotel industry and tourism industry has been thriving on piligrims.

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